One common distributed computing environment is a local area network (LAN). A LAN is a peer-to-peer communication network that enables terminals or stations to communicate directly on a point-to-point or point-to-multipoint basis. A LAN is optimized for a moderate-sized geographic area, such as a single office building, a warehouse, or a campus. In most LANs, communications are transmitted via wires.
Recently, wireless LAN (WLAN) technology has become popular. A WLAN operates in much the same manner as a wired LAN, except the transmission medium is radio waves rather than wires. In a typical WLAN topography, terminals communicate with a larger network, such as a wired LAN or wide area network (WAN), through access points. An access point is a terminal that acts as a gateway between the WLAN and the larger network.
In wired LANs, physical security can be used to prevent unauthorized access. However, physical security may be impractical in WLANs, so an authentication process for network access and an encryption/decryption mechanism may be required for security. Access points of a WLAN may illustratively be located in meeting rooms, restaurants, hallways, corridors, lobbies, and the like. A terminal accessing the WLAN may move out of range of a first access point and into range of a second access point. When this occurs, a handover (handoff) from the first access point to the second access point may be required.
Generally, the terminal must communicate terminal authentication packets with an authentication server, which may be a home registration server, before it may access the WLAN through the second access point. This authentication process could be time consuming, interrupting communications between the terminal and another terminal. This interruption could be problematic, especially for real-time applications, such as streaming applications and voice over IP (VoIP) applications, which require uninterrupted communications for smooth operation and quality of service (QoS) guarantees. It would be desirable to provide method and system for quickly authenticating a terminal during a handoff.